A Dirty Shame

It’s mid-August and Hot Summer Nights is in full swing on Sundance Channel. Some of the upcoming movies featured in this “steamy” series focus on sexual extremes: There’s sex addiction in John Waters’ outrageous comedy A DIRTY SHAME and also in the autobiographical tale I AM A SEX ADDICT; AUTOEROTIC follows the sexual obsessions of four Chicago couples; the compelling (but unfortunately named) documentary SEX MAGIC: MANIFESTING MAYA follows the polyamorous life of a sex guru; and INDIE SEX: EXTREMES looks at independent cinema that pushed the boundaries of sexual content in film.

Sweaty, hot, gnarly, thrilling — summer sex is all that, and also often hilarious. From John Waters’ delightfully dirty parody A DIRTY SHAME to the angsty adultery of LITTLE CHILDREN (don’t let the name throw you), we’ve got sexy summer movies to satisfy your every desire.

The world of film is changing. For one thing, there’s not much actual film anymore. The future is digital; more and more, it’s streaming on our computers, too. Every week in Legal Download, we survey the landscape of online movies to bring you a snapshot of what’s available. This week, it’s all about fucks and yucks as we list the sex comedies you can find online.

THIS WEEK’S THEME: Sex Comedies

There’s nothing funnier than sex. The eternal quest for it, the fumbling, awkward act itself, the deep shame afterwards — everything about it is ripe with comic possibilities. Movies tend to treat sex a bit seriously — maybe because the censors who monitor the content in movies tend to treat sex really seriously — but over the years, the cinema has nonetheless given us some very funny discourse on intercourse. Here are just five examples that you can watch in your home, on your computer, right this second.